WHAT COOKBOOK WERE YOU RAISED WITH?? (1,957 views)

Great question....I remember cooking from Joy of Cooking with my mom. and i just bought their newest addition....it's still a classic. While I rarely actually use the recipes in the book, it has a wealth of information anytime I have a question about a technique, ingredient etc... The other book I remember that she had which we used a lot was Better Homes and Garden. Other than these, she had a few cookbooks from our synagogue and the a big file box full of recipes from family and friends etc... And FYI....I live on East coast now but grew up in Midwest.

Karen

We had zero cookbooks in our house. Maybe that's why I'm so obsessed, LOL.
When I got my first apartment, I bought the ring-bindered Betty Crocker....and it went from there...I bought almost as many cookbooks as I did SHOES!!
I think Laurel's Kitchen was my favorite...I may have bought that while still living at home with my dad...loved reading the nutrition parts and sure enough, went on to become a dietitian.

Growing up in Sweden there were no printed cookbooks in our home. Mom had a notebook with handwritten recipes that she learnt from her mom. In those days relatives and friends might share recipes by writing them down for you.
When I took mandatory Home EC in Junior High we all received a little paper back - edition printed 1957. It's starting to fall apart now but I still keep it for some of the fish recipes.
Like PattiA mentions, newspapers and magazines were the main source for new recipes when I started experimenting in the kitchen. In 1970 a cooking magazine was launched in Sweden - Allt om Mat (Everything about Food). The magazine taught you step by step with pictures how to prepare classic Swedish food. It changed my life and I'm sure it was as important for everyone else. The magazine still has a huge following even though it has deviated from the early "cooking for dummies" recipes.

What a fascinating question!

I started first started to bake/cook in the mid-1980's, and I remember using a hand typed, small three-ring binder my Mom had inherited from one of her aunts. Recipes for whoopie pies, banana bread, angel food cake with a lemon curd made of eggs, and an angel food cake with raspberries (tho that might have been from my paternal grandma...). Being in a family of 6, there were lots of casserole recipes that were passed around with the other Mom's in the neighborhood. Or the recipes which ended up in the various fundraising cookbooks from churches and schools. I also remember using the Kraft 75th Anniversary cookbook which promoted pre-made Kraft items.

When I left for college and met my (now) Husband in the 1900's, his sister was vegetarian so I started using the Laurel's Kitchen and the Moosewood Cookbook. I had a copy of BH&G (I think that's the one, I get it confused with Betty Crocker and JoC), but I really didn't use it - there was a whole new world to explore!

And after we graduated and got permanent jobs late 1990's/early 2000's, I stumbled on Cooking Light magazine and the BB and that probably influenced my cooking the most. I started collecting the Annual Cookbooks about 2000, I think? I also discovered America's Test Kitchen, Cooks Illustrated, and Eating Well about that time. Dabbled a bit with Rachel Ray and Martha Stewart but they didn't quite inspire me like CL and ATK did.

So yeah, I started out with the the hand-typed handed down "recipes" and the ubiquitous mid-west church/school fund raising cookbooks. I think there is one recipe I still make from those (greatly modified) and it's purely for food nostalgia.

As a child growing up in the fifties, I remember my mom having a collection of illustrated paperbound cookbooks I found fascinating. (I'm sure they're somewhere online, the photos of jellied confections and molded dishes being featured in some gallery of disgusting foods) I can't say that she ever used those books, and somewhere between the fifties and our move in the mid-sixties, they vanished.  I remember that she also owned something entitled "The American Woman's Cookbook," which now resides in my collection merely as a curiosity. She was given that book as a wedding present in 1946 and I doubt it was ever used.  In the sixties I remember her collecting an illustrated set of Family Circle's Illustrated Library of Cooking which was one of those special offers markets always seemed to be running back then. I don't know if SHE used it, but I appropriated the volumes dealing with foreign cuisine and cookies.  My very first attempts at Christmas cookies came from the one volume I still have.  During the early sixties, I also bought my first cookbook-- an illustrated collection of goodies I sent for with 50 cents and a label from Baker's Chocolate. I can still recite their brownie recipe on request and I still have that book as well. By the time the early seventies rolled around, my mom had acquired two sets of Joy of Cooking through some special offer: one for me, one for herself. I still refer to mine now and then.

I think I've answered the original question, but I should also add that my mom was a prodigious collector of recipes from magazines and newspapers. That, I believe, is why she rarely used the few cookbooks she owned.

We are a "Mediterranean Triangle" ..  Maternal side is French and Paternal side is Spanish and my husband is Italian as my in-laws ..  So, my Mom is an amazing home gourmet and so is dad, his specialty is shellfish and finned fish ..  My inlaws are extraordinary home gourmets with Italian regional specialties.

Books:  The Escoffier, The famed French Chefs of yester-year and of course, the Le Cordon Bleu series and Julia Child who spent some time in France. 

Spanish influences:  The oldest Spanish Magazine (1936 - present time and still in print) is Club Gourmet.  My dad is an avid fisherman to date and he is well versed in the subject ..  He has also published a Guide many years on subject in Spanish and Catalan.  

My parents are still part time involved with our family business, in the sector of Hospitality; providing hotels and restaurants in Spain, with wines, cookware, products, table linens and seasonal decoratives for tables, porcelaine, earthenware for classics, stemware, glassware etcetra. Of course, it is obvious this business has changed in product development, chef and hotel usage and visual appeal. My twins sons, 2 daughter in laws, my husband and I are all involved in this business in different professional positions. 

I am in possession of  over 500 cookbooks  in  5 languages in alphabetical order and use my cookbooks to enhance our lunching repertoire.  We are avid fans of the tapas scene and also of Napoletano Pizza which we indulge in during the evenings as most living and working in Spain. 

A favourite series of our´s (Spanish only) are the books of Basque Chef Karlos Arguiñano.
 
We also have the series called:  COCINA CON FIRMA (Cooking with Signature) of all the Michelin Starred Chefs in Spain.  These were a series with our well known newspaper EL PAIS, every Friday.  There are 30 in total.  So, quite entertaining however, they are a passion collectible verses a daily or weekly simple recipe series of books.

To keep our French up to par, we also read Thuriès Gastronomie Magazine and YAM, which stands for Yannick Alleno, a French ***Michelin Starred Chef, both in Print. 

In English, having the necessity to study since childhood and to utilise the language to near proficiency for travel and business, we read Gourmet, no longer in print, Bon Apetit, Food & Wine Magazine, Sunset Magazine online and also House & Garden U.K. Edition, Saveur, no longer in print and ELLE GOURMET IN PRINT.     
 

Have a lovely weekend.
 






     

Emma,

Firstly, Thank you for compliment.

We run a business, and our passion is to travel, so it is nearly impossible to dedicate the time to write a book or create a blog. 

As we are fans of Ligurian focaccia, no we have not ventured to read blogs.  

We are avid cookbook collectors, very very dangerous in small retail book shops and as mentioned above in my original post.  I made a note to check out your recommendation ..  and had checked the Ligurian Focaccia (we prefer very traditional flat bread Focaccia verses the thicker styles).    Also, we are slightly unpleased by the recipe ingredients that we browsed. 

Maple products are not native to our lands or our diets and using these heavily sweet products in an Egyptian historical flatbread which the Romans brought to Italy, is not in our stars  !!   Each to his own likes and dislikes however, the lady you have mentioned really writes for a North American audience.  Not an Italian or Spanish or French one. 

Focaccia is simply Italian farine (flour - which we purchase from a distributor friend from Italy) and water, Italian Evoo and either fresh Sage or fresh Rosemary swigs.  That is it ..  It is a flat pizza dough.      

I rarely use blogs from my own experiences, I prefer cookbooks ..  For me, it is in "my hands" and highly authentic  verses  computer blogs.

There are uncountable British bloggers online however, it is a mix of this and that -- not quite my cup of tea however, you may take a look at the BBC blog in which there are numerous different bloggers putting on their recipes.  It is quite popular ..

Have a lovely weekend.